PS3 owners around the world are complaining that a recent upgrade has left them with in-game errors and unable to access the online gaming Sony PlayStation Network (PSN).

Reports, beginning just a few hours ago from Australia, North America and Europe, started a flood of complaints about people not only being unable to access the PSN but having the failure kick them out of games.

One reported problem is an 80001050F error code which is corrupting trophy information in games like Heavy Rain. Trophies monitor players’ progress throughout the game and without the correct information people are being kicked straight back to the XMB, the main menu system in Sony’s gaming consoles.

There’s still no official word on the problem but it could go beyond the PSN itself into the hardware.

Owners of PS3 Fats (the old-school PS3’s) are reporting that the date on their console has reverted to 12/31/1999. This may have something to do with the reasons why some PS3 owners are also receiving errors while the console is offline.

It should be said that Sony quickly acknowledged the problem and tweeted that they were looking into it – but that’s little help to the millions of gamers out there who have been unable to get their fix for the past few hours.